’Cats look to bounce back

Friday

The power of high expectations might have gotten the Kansas State Wildcats last Saturday in Milwaukee.

But K-State coach Bruce Weber isn't convinced it was pressure to succeed so much that led to their 83-71 loss to Marquette.

"I had to learn, too, it's more the other teams are much more ready than our guys realized," said Weber, whose No. 16-ranked Wildcats (6-1) are back on the road today for a 3:35 p.m. against Tulsa (6-3) at Donald W. Reynolds Center in Tulsa, Okla. "We were just another team last year — 'They're good, they're Big 12, but they're picked eighth (in the league)' — but now you're picked eighth in the country or whatever, so it's a different mindset for the other teams.

"You saw that. (Marquette) played at a really high level — the crowd, the energy, the place (Fiserv Forum)."

Interestingly, K-State can turn that mindset the other way today against Tulsa. Even though the Wildcats remain ranked, they lost to the Golden Hurricane, 71-64, last year in Wichita.

"We've talked about it," Weber said. "They beat us.

"It's going to be a tough game. They're good."

Tulsa is coming off a 74-71 victory over Oklahoma State on Wednesday night and is 6-0 at home.

"We definitely have a chip on our shoulder," K-State guard Xavier Sneed said of facing Tulsa. "They got us last year so (we want to) go back in their territory and get one."

Wildcat senior forward Dean Wade compared the Marquette loss last week to the Tulsa game a year ago.

"We had the same thing kind of happen last year with Tulsa," he said. "We just didn't come out with the right emotion and we didn't play with any urgency.

"I think it was a wakeup call to everyone. It starts with the seniors and I'll take full responsibility for that, so we'll be back to normal."

Weber, who said he had not been pleased with the week of practices leading up to the Marquette game, was confident that the loss got his players' attention.

"We've gotten after them a little bit, and obviously when you fail or you don't have success, you're much more apt to listen," he said. "They've been pretty good (in practice).

"We'll see."

Wade, who leads the Wildcats in scoring with 15.4 points per game and rebounding with a 7.7 average, concurred.

"Everyone's been really locked in, focused and playing really hard," he said of the practices since Marquette. "Everyone's buying into the way coach plays and so I think it's been a very good week of practice."

The Wildcats finished last season on a high note, reaching the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight. But Weber has cautioned his players to not lose sight of how they got there.

"We've talked a lot this week (that) you've got to go through the process," he said. "Everybody remembers the glory of the end, but there's a hard, long process to get to that point, and that's what they've got to embrace — the journey, the process to hopefully get to where we have success at the end."

The Wildcats face a Tulsa team that has been solid at home and competitive in all its games. The losses came against No. 6-ranked Nevada (96-86) and Southern Illinois (79-69) on a neutral court and on the road against Utah (69-64).

The Hurricane is led in scoring by senior wing DaQuan Jeffries at 13.4 points per game, while 6-foot-8 forward Martins Igbanu averages 12.4 points and 5.8 rebounds and guard Sterling Taplin 10.3 points and 5.6 assists.

In addition to Wade, K-State is getting 14.4 points a game from Barry Brown and 11.8 from Sneed.

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